ASL Underland
by Kuro Neko Kaizoku
Summary: Ace is a traveler who stumbles upon a village with a "cursed forest". What events occur when he makes it his goal to solve the mysteries of the "cursed forest"? -Crappy summary, story is better...possibly. First story v.v Acelu AU Alive!Ace Alive!Sabo Salu, T for now with possible M in later chapters.
1. Intro to Underland

Eeepppp! First story ever! SCARY! Well, this intro will most likely suck golf balls, but eh. I'll try hard to make a good story! I'd love some reviews! Good, bad, just statements that you really don't care, EVEN FLAMES! IDK! Flame it so much it becomes gay! Just review! Cause I am currently freaking out! XD Anyway~ Enjoy (if possible) the intro to *drum roll* ASL UNDERLAND! (- Name is so NOT original.)

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He urged his already overworked muscles to work harder and allow him to run faster. He panted heavily and winced in pain as his already severely torn shirt revived another tear and his side another gash. The dense vegetation he ran through was filled with bushes that bore dangerously sharp thorns. His shoes were covered in layers of dirt and his pants were in as bad of condition as his shirt. He tripped over a large tree root before summoning all of his will and forcing himself back up to continue running. He had a noticeably large, bleeding, gash that ran vertically over his right eye, distorting his vision. His green hair was full of small twigs and leaves from the foliage.

'I've got to keep running!' He told himself when his body begged for rest. Oh, how he would love nothing more than to just stop running right then and take a nap. A long, long, peaceful nap. However, if he were to stop now, then he would most definitely die, and he simply couldn't allow that to happen. He still had a promise to fulfill before he could die. All he had to do was make it to the gates and then he could rest. They never leave the gates.

He had finally made it through the thickest of the woods and could now see the large, old gateway ahead. 'I'm almost there!' He screamed in his head in joy. His excitement was short-lived however when he heard the all-to-recognizable squeal of the gates closing. His face paled as he stopped dead in his tracks at the sigh before him. There, only a few yards away from him and the only obstacle stopping him from reaching the other side of that gate, was a blonde man in blue.

The villagers had warned the green haired man about him. He was known as the 'Mad Hatter'. Easily recognizable by his royal blue tail coat, top hat, golden blonde hair, and a blood chilling smile. The villagers had tried repeatedly to warn him of the dangers that lie beyond the tall gates. Little did he realize that by passing the warnings of as superstitions, did he put his life at risk. He mentally slapped himself for his fear and took a steady fighting stance. If was to die, it would most definitely not be without a fight. He leaned forward slightly before charging towards the Mad Hatter, with a fist raised, before stopping cold once more when the man in blue spoke,

"Mister Zoro," the Mad Hatter began slowly in a deep and venom filled voice. "leaving already are we?" He questioned darkly as all the blood drained from the green haired mans face. Zoro quickly remembered the one warning the village stressed the most. For him to never let the man in blue learn his name. Supposedly there no chance of surviving if the man knew your name, similar to that of the writing spider myth. It is said that if one speaks their name and the spider writes their name in its web, than they are certain to die that day. Of course, being as unbelieving in the myths as he was, Zoro had shouted his name loudly when he first entered the gates as if to mock the villagers themselves. Now, thanks to his idiocy, the Mad Hatter knew his name.

The man simply smiled in his blood chilling way before laughing darkly at the green haired man before him, causing the other to become both confused, irritated, and terrified. He wondered as to what the blue man found so funny and assumed that he was amused by Zoro's terror.

The blonde calmed his dark laughter before smiling at Zoro with a villainous glint in his black and blue flecked eyes. "You seem to be afraid of the wrong thing Mister Zoro. For it has not been I, who has chased you through the thorny woods." He explained with an underlying tone of sinister humor before gesturing behind the other slightly.

Just as Zoro turned his head in the direction of the woods did he see a terrifying sight that made his heart stop. Out from in the tick thorny plant-life, emerged something from the darkest and most twisted nightmares. A tall and grotesquely thin creature, with lanky limbs and skin that was black with sickly, blood like, red eyes. It had starkly white claws and jagged rows of teeth that seemed to many to fit inside of its mouth. The only non-demon characteristic about the creature was its long and slender rabbit ears, that were just as black as the rest of its body. However, that small feature did nothing to deduct from its gory appearance.

The monster let out a deep, gargled, grow that resembled something of a chuckle as it walked towards Zoro at and agonizingly slow pace while dragging its claws along the ground. The wounded and terrified man began to back away from the monster as quickly as possible before he felt his back make contact with the large gate and he began to search frantically for a way to open them. He had finally found what looked to be the wheel to open the gate when he felt as though someone had sliced across his back with sharp, and heated knives. He wailed in pain and turned around to see none other than the gruesome monster licking blood, his blood, from off its deadly claws. The sight being vile enough to make him almost want the Mad Hatter to be there instead.

Once the creature licked its stark white claws clean of blood did it look the other in the eye. Even while having his vision limited, all the greennett could do was tremble at the sight of its blood red eyes. Eyes that looked as if the creature had seen the lowest layers of hell, then still craved to see more pain and death. It terrified Zoro to no end, yet he found himself unable to look away from those red eyes. He tried to make his body run away from the creature but it wouldn't listen to him, even as finished cleaning the blood from its claws. 'Move damn it! Just run away!' He screamed in his head. It was no use though, for as soon as he gained enough control of his body to simply turn his head, the creature attacked. It gave a bloodcurdling, howl-like, scream before slashing across Zoro's chest causing the same deep and burning gashes as the ones on his back. Then the creature backed up slightly as if to see its work. It moved in a grotesque manner, as if its body were a form of suspended liquid.

Zoro screamed in agony at the pain coursing through his body. Had his muscles not been so sore there is a chance that he could of side-stepped the attack to at least cause less damage. He knew that, even though the attack had not hit any major blood veins, he was still losing a large amount of blood at a dangerously fast pace. He placed his back as close to the gate as possible while gritting his teeth at the sting of the iron gates on his wounded back. He took a moment to even out his haggard breathing and wondered as to why the creature would allow him to recuperate, even slightly. The only reason he could fathom would be that it was enjoying his pain. The creature only further supported his thoughts by revealing its jagged, red tinted, teeth, in a slow fashion as its mouth formed what looked to be a sinister smile. It continued to curl its lips until the smile reached the very edges of its face. The sight caused Zoro, a grown man who has killed a many and never once been phased, to tremble in fear. He could only imagine the immense pain that would could be caused by those teeth. The very thought made him wince.

They stood there for several minuets in an eerie silence, simply studying one another. Zoro took in all of the creatures features trying to find an opening of some sort that would help him to escape. His eyes surveyed the slimy looking black skin for any injuries, of which he found none. Not even a simple scratch from the thorns of the forest plants. The creatures eyes also seemed to never venture from Zoros face. It just stared at him while maintaining that gruesome looking smile. After a few minuets, his vision began to blur and he realized that he had already lost to much blood. That meant that he would have to make his move to escape within the next few moments or he would have no chance of survival. He steadied himself slowly as to not alert the creature of his goal. After a few seconds he turned and began running to his left as fast as he could. All he would have to do, is reach the gate doors and then maybe he could push them open. Then he would be safe and could get medical help from the village.

Unfortunately for Zoro though, he had forgotten about the Mad Hatter. He had watched the two the entire time, just incase the green haired man had tried to escape. He now stood in front of the gateway before Zoro with a rather annoyed look on his face. However, his annoyance seemed to be directed at not the other man, but at the creature behind him instead. "I can't stand it when you act like this." The Mad Hatter all but growled at the creature. He slowly began to remove a basic pistol from behind his back. "Why can't we just do it the easy way for once?" He questioned in a way that seemed more pointed towards himself

The very sight of the pistol was humorous to Zoro. He couldn't help how laughable he found his situation. There, not even 30 feet behind him, was a murderous demon and the most terrifying thing he has ever seen, yet he was about to die because of a pistol. He stood there in front of the Mad Hatter, almost begging him to shoot him. If the man dressed in blue were to shoot him know, then he would not have to suffer the pain from another of the creatures attacks. 'My only regret, is not listening to the villagers.' He thought before an almost regretful expression crossed over, only to be hidden under his mask that was void of all emotions except for a corrupted sense of humor. 'This is it.' He thought as the pistol was raised to meet his head and the trigger was pulled.

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Was that a crappy end? I hope not. XoX Please review and let me know what you think! The next chapter will get more into the actual plot and introduce our main (and sexy X3) character!


	2. Ace and a Curse

I-I can't believe it! First story and people liked it! I feel a bit better about posting chapter 2 now, lol. I'd like to give a big, yummy, epic, digital, cookie to Key-san for being the first to review and for being so nice about it X3. I LOVE all the reviews, but that first one just means a lot, lol. NOW! Review replies at the end, and onto introduction of sexy main character!

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Last time on ASL Underland:

'My only regret, is not listening to the villagers.' He thought before an almost regretful expression crossed over, only to be hidden under his mask that was void of all emotions except for a corrupted sense of humor. 'This is it.' He thought as the pistol was raised to meet his head and the trigger was pulled.

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It was an unusually sunny day in Foosha Village, considering the dense tree canopy that covers the village. It was a wonder how the light managed to find its way to the ground. Not that anyone would complain about it, that is if they weren't too distracted to notice. It couldn't be helped, though, considering that a dead body had appeared in front of the Cursed Forests gates. It wasn't a necessarily new occurrence, ever since a man with scarlet red hair and a straw hat bought the land that the Cursed Forest was on, there have been reoccurring events where either a villager or traveler would wander into the Cursed Forest and not return before nightfall. Then each morning after their bodies would turn up, brutally mutilated, always in the same spot in front of the forest gates.

A young woman with emerald green hair stood in front of the gates, her gaze unfocused as she stared ahead. She slowly reached a hand forward and grabbed onto one of the gate bars before a shout startled her causing her to jump back. She turned around to see an old man, Mayor Wood Slap, walking towards her as fast as possible with his cane in hand. She stood patiently and smiled as he finally reached her and began to pant in order to recover his breath.

"Ma-Makino," Wood Slap began. "there's a-" He panted and took one final deep breath before finishing and pointing away from the forest and back towards the village. "-a traveler. He asked for you by name and is waiting at your inn."

"Oh? Did you happen to catch a name?" Makino asked him calmly as they began the short walk into the village towards Makino's inn. She already had a relatively good idea as to who the mystery man was; however, it couldn't hurt to be sure.

"He didn't give a name, only said that you were expecting him. Although, I must say, he does seem very familiar. Knew me before I introduced myself too." He drifted into thought just as they reached the front of a 4 story building with a wooden sign reading 'Patty's Inn'. The more he thought about it, the more and more the man seemed familiar to him. Small features and things about him keep tugging at Wood Slap's memory. He was brought out of his thoughts by the sounds of the inn doors opening, and convinced himself that he would remember if it was important enough. He followed Makino inside, cane in both hands behind his back, and surveyed the main room for any signs of the mystery traveler.

"Makino-san?" An unfamiliar male voice called out from across the room. They both turned to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. He stood up from the green couch where he had been waiting and rushed towards the two with a large smile on his freckle covered face as he shouted happily. "Makino-san!" He had wavy black hair that seemed to be tamed only by the bright orange hat he wore. He was shirtless, much to Wood Slaps disapproval, wearing only his hat, shorts, and sandals. He embraced Makino in a warm hug, to which she replied by hugging him back with a soft smile.

"Its been a long time, Ace." Makino smiled as she took a moment to view the young man. He had grown exponentially over the years since she had seen him last. He grew taller and obtained a rather muscular physic, yet still had his freckles which gave him a much younger appearance. "Biased on your letter, I was expecting you to be a day or two later." She said as she lead the two to have a seat on one of the rooms large, green, couches.

"Haha, well I was actually expecting the journey to take a bit longer than it did." The freckled man admitted while rubbing the back of his head bashfully. "Oh! I almost forgot." He stated before rummaging through his pack and pulling out a red colored envelope, which he handed to Makino. "For you, from..." His voice trailed off slowly as his head began to slowly lean forward, and then fell, still as a statue, onto the hardwood floor. The two adults could only stand in confusion and slight panic for several minuets before Ace began to snore, signaling that he was, in fact, **not** dead.

"Should we set him on the couch?" Wood Slap suggested not but five whole seconds before Ace jumped up with an excessive amount of energy and gave an apologetic look.

"Heh heh, sorry about that. Now what was I saying?" He pinched the bridge of his nose in thought before slamming a closed fist into an open palm. "That's right! The letter. Its from Shanks. You know, red hair, really laidback attitude, certifiably crazy? Said he knows you all and asked me to bring you this, after he found out that I knew you, Makino-san."

"From Shanks?" Wood Slap questioned. "No one around here has heard from him in quite some time." He grasped his beard repeatedly in a rather anxious manor. "Nothing good ever happens when that man is involved." Wood Slap sighed before looking at Makino expectantly. "Well? What does it say?"

Makino unfolded the sealed envelope and revealed two pieces of parchment, both with the same handwriting.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Ace began as he pointed towards each piece of parchment. "He said for you to read the bigger one aloud and then the smaller one should be for your eyes only, Makino-san."

Makino cleared her throat before beginning to read the letter aloud. "Dear Makino, Sabo, Luffy, and old Wood Slap, if your still alive, that is." She couldn't help but giggle lightly as Wood Slap sputtered angrily and Ace smirked. "It's been quite a long time, hasn't it? The last time I was in Foosha, Makino was just barely an adult and old Woody could still bend over without breaking his back." Queue a second round of smirks and sputtering. "In all seriousness though, as I'm sure old Woody has already guessed, I have some bad news." Makino took a deep breath before continuing. "Ace will be staying in Foosha Village for a while and will be given all rights and access to the Cursed Forest." She trailed off and furrowed her eyebrows together in thought, while Ace attempted to not laugh at the dumbstruck look upon Wood Slap's face.

Mayor Wood Slap almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. Shanks had always been adamant about the villagers trying to keep people out of the Cursed Forest and yet now, he sends a young man and gives him full control of the forest? What could Red Hair be thinking, allowing someone as naïve as the young man to have full access to the Cursed Forest. Did he want the boy to die? Well, at least Shanks had informed the boy of the forests dangers and warned him to stay out of the forest unless there was full daylight, even in an emergency. Unfortunately for Wood Slap, though, neither fate nor Shanks were so kind.

"Wait, what? I knew I would be staying here for a while but he never mentioned anything about a 'Cursed Forest.' Just what the heck **is **that?" The freckled man questioned with only the slightest hints of fear and a large show of excitement. Whether he admits it or not, Ace was rather intrigued by this 'Cursed Forest', and yet all he knew about it was the name and that he had full access to it. It may just be worth Shanks sending him on such a long journey just to hand deliver a stupid letter.

"To the north of the village is a fenced in forest with large steel gates." Wood Slap explained. "That is the place referred to as 'Cursed Forest'. Dangerous creatures lurk in the forest and the only deadly ones are, thankfully, nocturnal. That's why as you will probably see, there are several signs surrounding the forest to remind people of it's 'Curse', which is only active at night."

"Okay, so then what is the curse, and what dose it do to poeple?" Ace questioned, already feeling the adrenaline rush from simply thinking of such a place.

"The 'curse' in the name dose not affect people, but instead the monster that lurks within it." Makino began as she took a seat on the coach, and motioned for Ace to join her, which he did. "Long ago, there were well believed myths of violent and villainous beings. They were called 'Dobutsu Oni' meaning animal demon. What they resembled was self explanatory, according to what animal they were biased off of. They varied in degrees from an animals full form, an extremely disfigured demonic form, and even mostly human. However, for them to become more and more human looking, they had to consume humans."

"Uh huh. Well, not that these 'Dobutsu Oni' don't sound interesting and all, but what exactly do they have to do with the forest's curse?" Ace interrupted, only to receive a solid whack on the back of the head, by Mayor Wood Slap's cane.

"Don't interrupt, you rude brat."

"But I was ju-" Another whack followed by mumbled cursing.

"Please, continue, Makino." Wood Slap said as he adjusted his hat.

She smiled at Ace, a bit apologetically, and continued to explain. "The 'curse' is the gate, it stops the Dobustsu Oni from escaping and wreaking havoc. This has then caused the Dobustsu Oni to become extremely angered. This is why no one who knows of the curse never enters the forest. However, there are always some, such as rather adventurous travelers, who don't heed the warnings and enter the forest anyway." She takes a breath and pushes her hair behind her ear before glancing out the window at a group of people carrying a mangled green haired mans body. "They always appear in the same spot every morning after, and only one has ever come back alive."

"Who?" The young man questioned.

"Shanks." Wood Slap said with a huff of irritation. "And he's done it more than once at that." The elder man adjusted his hat once again. "I'd assumed that he would have told you all about it, seeing as how much the man liked to brag every time he came to the village."

"Shanks? Brag? About anything?" Ace looked at Wood Slap although the man had just told him that snails were, in reality, so fast that they just seem slow to the human eye because of their tremendous speed.

"Mayor, that was before the accident." Makino reminded the Mayor with a glint of what seemed to be pain in her eyes before she replaced it with her usual gentle smile.

"Oh, yes." Wood Slap said with the same temporary reaction.

"Accident? What accident? What happened? Dose it have anything to do with his missing arm?" Ace began to spew questions at rapid fire.

Makino and Wood Slap silenced Ace's questions almost immediately with hardened faces at his last question. "Ah, uhm, I just...He's never said more than that it was a bet on a new generation." He mumbled quietly before finding much sudden interest in his feet. That continued for several minuets until the sounds of raspy and feminine laughs broke out. Ace jerked his head up in shock before Makino gave him her more and more familiar smile.

"That's just like Shanks." Makino said before both her and Wood Slap stood up. "Well then, it's getting late. We should go ahead and get you a room, Ace."

"Then tomorrow I'll show you the Cursed Forest." Wood Slap stated with a nod.

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**Review Replies:**

**key46812** - Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked it. I also agree, 'cause as much as I love the stories already on FanFiction, I can't seem to find many like this, at least in the One Piece genre. XD Sorry if I got your hopes up on the possibility of Zoro living. Just wasn't meant to be, I guess. (XoX BUT I WROTE IT!?) And the Rabbit Creature is completely of my own idea. I will admit to being partially "in-love" with the B Rabbit (black rabbit), from Pandora Hearts, however they are NOT ALIKE AT ALL. However, I am a HUGE myth fan, so if you know of one I'd love to hear about it!

**RenwolfChan**- Glad you like it! XD I'll try my best so it doesn't disappoint. ^^

**manga-lover2958** - Awe, thanks! I'm happy to hear that you think so. As for if Luffy is the monster, well...You'll just have to wait and see! At least you get to see some of how Ace fits in. There's definitely a lot more behind his presence. Here's the update, hope you didn't wait to long! ^-^

**anonymous** - It's possible, but no spoilers yet! Hope this update was fast enough.

...2nd CHAPPY DONE! Please review! Or else a certain Pheonix will visit you in your sleep and set your bed on fire! *_*


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